A year ago, Derry Hammond was winding up a four-game series in Quebec City as a member of the independent league Bangor Lumberjacks.

This week, he was supposed to be in Peoria, Ill., in the midst of a five-game series as a member of the Swing of the Quad Cities, a Class A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Instead, the former slugging Lumberjacks outfielder finds himself cooling his heels as a free agent following his surprising release by the Cardinals last week.

“Yeah, well, I’d been in a slump lately and it was kind of a numbers game with a lot of outfielders on the team,” Hammond said.

Hammond hit .227 with seven home runs, 27 RBIs and 43 strikeouts in 156 at-bats over 43 games with the Swing.

Just three months ago, the 25-year-old figured he’d be playing a second season of independent ball despite leading the Northeast League with 23 home runs last season while batting .287 with 66 RBIs.

The Tupelo, Miss., native was invited to the Toronto Blue Jays spring training season, but was released in the final week. After resigning himself to playing one more season of independent ball before possibly hanging up his baseball cleats, he was called by the Cardinals and signed 24 hours later. Now he’s again waiting for the phone to ring.

“We’ll see what happens,” Hammond said.

Former Lumberjack on a Rall

Former Bangor Lumberjacks pitcher Tim Rall has made the jump from Single-A to Triple-A in just under two years following his promotion from the Double-A San Antonio Missions to the Tacoma Rainiers last week.

The 6-foot, 200-pound left-handed pitcher was selected as a starting pitcher for the Northeast League All-Star Game in 2003 after going 4-0 with a 1.81 earned run average and 58 strikeouts in 60 innings with the Bangor Lumberjacks as an undrafted free agent out of St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, N.C.

Before the 25-year-old Rall had a chance to play in the game, he was bought by the Seattle Mariners and assigned to their high Single-A team in California. He went 2-3 with a 3.65 ERA in 10 games (four starts) with Inland Empire that season.

Last year, he pitched exclusively in relief and appeared in 56 games for the Missions. He went 3-5 with a 4.56 ERA. He had an impressive 78 strikeouts and 35 walks in 65 innings pitched.

This season, Rall was 1-1 with a 3.32 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 19 innings with San Antonio before his promotion. The Lynbrook, N.Y. native has made three appearances with Tacoma, giving up three walks, seven hits and five earned runs in five innings for a 9.00 ERA. He has two strikeouts so far.

Dogs go to bat for Maine military

The Portland Sea Dogs will host a Save Our Bases Night at the Hadlock Field ballpark in Portland Wednesday when the Dogs host the Trenton Thunder.

The Sea Dogs franchise is donating 50 percent of all ticket sales for home games from June 1-22 to the task forces formed to keep open military bases in Maine which have been targeted for closure by the Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure Committee.

Representatives from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery and the Brunswick Naval Air Station – which are targeted for closure and realignment, respectively – will throw out the ceremonial first pitches. Also, a giant greeting card will be available for fans to sign before it is forwarded to the BRAC commission.

For more information or to purchase tickets, fans can call the ticket office at 879-9500.

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net